Fukuoka to Hiroshima May 2025
At Fukuoka we were joined by Des and Julianne, who were to accompany us for 10 days. Saturday 10 May we took a train south to Yanagawa, the Venice of Kyushu, famous for its kilometers of canals. Here we hopped in a punt with an amusing Japanese ‘punter’ who sang us around the canals. He had a great voice and we saw more wildlife here than we did up the Kinabatungan River, some nice birds, turtles, and a few snakes. Stopped into a beautiful little coffee shop on the way too, check this out below. No barista machines here, just old fashion double boilers.
We spent a few days in the marina as the weather wasn't too great. the following day was mother’s day so Julianne and I were given the green light to go into town for a browse in the shops meeting up with the guys later for a special mother’s day dinner atop a multi storied hotel. Had a very special memorable Teppanyaki meal in a private room with our own chef and waiter. You probably only do it once in a lifetime, and it’s worth it. Another Japanese taste sensation for us all.
Monday we motor sailed to Himeshima via a night in Oshima. At Himeshima we met John the Ozzie who owned his own little cafe on the waterfront. We had a chat with him before walking around the town and apart from a walk to see the prawn lakes there wasn’t too much to see here. But I now regret not buying a jar of Vegemite from his shop!
Japan is a bit stricter about bringing food into the country, compared to SE Asia where they didn’t even blink at the 10 bags of white powder I brought in-yoghurt mix.
Next stop was Kaminoseki, where we were able to tie up to a floating dock which is far better than a concrete wharf where you need to watch your lines during tides and make sure your fenders are well placed so you don’t gore the topsides of the boat on oysters and barnacles. We spent the day walking around the island to a great wee restaurant with beautiful rose gardens. There is a lot of greenery in the hills surrounding the towns and cites but really not a lot within the towns themselves. I didn’t appreciate how hilly and mountainous Japan actually is and there isn’t a tendency to build in the hills either.
Walking over the hill through the small town to the other side of the island we came across a few abandoned houses -testament to a declining population. Most of the small island towns we have been to have one or two abandoned schools as there are no kids to fill them. Actually it’s one thing we have really noticed, the lack of kids around and the abundance of older people. I guess most of the kids go away to school at some stage. You can apparently buy very cheap real estate in places.
The problem with the abandoned houses is that people use them as junk yards. Because its expensive to get rid of rubbish here, people tend to dump their used whitewater and electronics inside .
That night we waited for a storm to pass though before getting up early in the morning to depart for Hiroshima. Here we stayed at Kanon Marina, a rickety old marina that creaked and groaned constantly. The huge concrete breakwater is actually a floating wall, so doesn’t stop a lot of the big wakes entering. A strange feeling to be heavily rocking inside a marina. The marina itself is in on reclaimed land in an industrial part of the city surrounded by vacant lots, mega logistics warehouses and car manufacturers. It’s not the most inspiring of places compared to the picturesque islands.
Des and Juliane left us in Hiroshima to continue their trip through Japan and sth Korea. We caught up with Alan and Cindy who were berthed opposite us and had a few good nights of card playing. Alan presented Morgan with a signed copy of his book ‘The Sea is So Great”, a great story of his foray into sailing which led to him competing in the BOC single handed Challenge Race-a race around the world.
We visited the peace park and Hiroshima bomb museum, again like Nagasaki, a very grim reminder of the war with very graphic murals. Those bombs were something else.
Monday 26th we left Hiroshima for a wee cruise around some of the islands while we waited for boat parts to arrive. First stop was Miyajima. Quite a tourist spot but you can see why. It has a famous Tori gate (a religious doorway if you like, from the ordinary world into the Kami) in the water here which is a big attraction. These gates are a very important part of the Shinto religion in Japan and found everywhere. But what I liked was the deer roaming freely around the island. They are pretty friendly and of course you’re not encouraged to pat or feed them but when one wandered up and polished off Cindy’s saki you have to chuckle. One happy deer.
We also rode the gondola up Mt Misen with spectacular views at the top. There’s several trails you can walk up, but not sure Warrens knees would have thanked him. We did walk down though which was still quite a hike but thankfully shady and picturesque. Lots of solemn looking people hiking up, some women dressed for a cocktail party and looking ready to murder their partners. Gondolas are there for a reason. Also lots of manmade stone aqueducts running through the island which lends to the beauty of it. Guess they get a lot of rainfall.
Even though it is a fairly popular tourist spot everything shuts at 5 on the dot. I think it’s to keep the town peaceful and stop wanna be revellers wrecking the place.
One thing Japan does very well is aquariums. Well worth a visit to the one here, although I’m not a fan of big animals in captivity, here they had sea lions and porpoises and some forlorn little penguins who were put in a display box for up close family photo opportunities. They didn’t look too happy and I’m sure they’d rather be back home jumping off ice cliffs. The long necked turtles below were pretty groovy though.
After a few days enjoying Miyajima we headed down to Kurahashi. Again a floating dock within a high breakwater albeit next to an oyster factory which when the wind was blowing the wrong way was very pungent. The waterways around these islands are intensively farmed for oysters, producing around 200 000 tonnes of oysters annually. Japan is the third largest oyster producer in the world. Long lines of racks of scallop shells are used as spat collectors and once they begin to grow the scallops shells are separated by plastic spacers. Unfortunately it’s not oyster season at the moment so fresh oysters aren’t available.
The farms are everywhere and given the amount of derelict infrastructure we see from the racks etc probably the reason why it’s not recommended to anchor around them. Which seems unusual for the Japanese as they seem so efficient, organized and safety conscious. Check out the Japanese meth lab below, proper PPE gear, outside in the open air, every thing documented…….
We haven’t yet anchored in Japan. There is not as much crap in the water as in SE Asia but we did get a disposable raincoat wrapped round the prop, and in 16 degree water guess who drew the short straw of going in.
After a week away we headed back up to Hiroshima as Warren had to fly back home for a meeting and we were still waiting for some boat stuff to arrive.
A couple of the boats from this years 2 handed Melbourne Osaka race were berthed here when we returned and we had a great boozy night with White Spirit, a Melbourne yacht crewed by Lilly and Cyrus. It’s no cake run this race, taking boats on average 36 days. A Japanese boat Zero who had also participated was parked here and we were invited to join the celebrations at the marina restaurant.
A fun night with lots of speeches and prizes and good to see the Japanese sailors are no different, all got stuck into their Sake and whisky and of course the party ended up on one of the Japanese boats. I’d had enough by this time but Warren managed to stay the distance and joined in the pole dancing on the boat and was fluent in Japanese by the time he got back to Kanaloa.
see ya soon!
As always, a great read. I await in anticipation for the next instalment.
What an incredible trip you are having I loved Japan but only there for about 7 days. Sad about the oysters there though. We had some fresh ones brought down from Kerikeri on Sunday Taste was amazing. Take care and love to all xx